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New York Best and Worst Driving Cities
The state of New York regularly rates among the best in the country, from QuoteWizard national studies. Given that most of the nearly 20 million people in the state are condensed in urban area’s there’s not much room for speeding or car accidents. Most urban dwellers are using transit over driving a car. Those that are driving are typically stuck in congested urban roads.
It’s when you start getting out of the urban areas of New York City that you’ll start to find the bad drivers. Long Island is home to some of the worst drivers in the state. Upstate cities like Schenectady and Rochester are among the worst drivers too. When you get away from crowded urban areas into suburban cities it becomes the ideal places where you have enough cars on the roads with enough room to speed that bad driving occurs.
We here at QuoteWizard wanted to break down where the best and worst driving cities are in New York. To find overall driver quality in the state, we analyzed driver data from New York’s 50 largest cities who used QuoteWizard.com to compare quotes. We then ranked cities by rate of incidents. Cities with the highest rate of incidents we considered to be the worst drivers and cities with the lowest rate of incidents to be the best drivers. Incidents include accidents, speeding tickets, DUI’s and moving citations.
Worst driving cities in New York
| Rank (worst) | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | Central Islip |
| 2 | Schenectady |
| 3 | West Babylon |
| 4 | Huntington Station |
| 5 | Newburgh |
| 6 | Lockport |
| 7 | Kingston |
| 8 | New Rochelle |
| 9 | Elmira |
| 10 | Bay Shore |
| 11 | Rochester |
| 12 | Valley Stream |
| 13 | Rome |
| 14 | Hempstead |
| 15 | Springfield Gardens |
| 16 | Saint Albans |
| 17 | Middletown |
| 18 | Yonkers |
| 19 | Troy |
| 20 | Poughkeepsie |
| 21 | Freeport |
| 22 | Brentwood |
| 23 | Spring Valley |
| 24 | Albany |
| 25 | Staten Island |
Central Islip
When looking for the best and worst drivers in the state of New York you don’t have to look much further than Long Island. For the worst you’ll find them right in the center of Long Island, in Central Islip. Most folks in more urban area’s reply on public transit, while most suburban Long Island folks are using cars to get around. Central Islip drivers are the worst of the worst in New York. Suffolk county had 8.91 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2018. That’s nearly double the state average of 4.83.
Schenectady
Getting off Long Island and into upstate New York, you’ll find the second worst drivers in Schenectady. I-90 among other connecting highways going through town make Schenectady a prime candidate for incidents. The more traffic in the city, the higher the chances of incidents. Compared to neighboring Albany, Schenedtady drivers are significantly worse. It could very well mean drivers in town really are that bad. Schenectady county accounted for 4.51 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2018. Right on pace with the state average.
West Babylon
Making our way back to Long Island is another of the worst driving cities West Babylon. Again, another central Long Island city being listed among the worst driving cities. Without much significant traffic passing in and out of town, it makes you wonder if it’s the central Long Island drivers who are just the worst?
Best driving cities in New York
| Rank (best) | City |
|---|---|
| 1 | New York |
| 2 | Astoria |
| 3 | Elmhurst |
| 4 | Corona |
| 5 | Brooklyn |
| 6 | Bronx |
| 7 | Ridgewood |
| 8 | Niagara Falls |
| 9 | Ozone Park |
| 10 | White Plains |
| 11 | Flushing |
| 12 | South Ozone Park |
| 13 | East Elmhurst |
| 14 | Queens Village |
| 15 | Far Rockaway |
| 16 | Utica |
| 17 | Jamaica |
| 18 | Buffalo |
| 19 | Mount Vernon |
| 20 | Jamestown |
| 21 | Watertown |
| 22 | Binghamton |
| 23 | Elmont |
| 24 | Rosedale |
| 25 | Syracuse |
New York
It’s really no surprise that Manhattan was rated as the best drivers. Most everyone in town uses the subway, taxi or walks. Even if you get behind the wheel, traffic congestion makes a speeding ticket nearly impossible. While the temperament of Manhattan drivers is likely far from the best in the state, the environment of the city keeps drivers safe. New York county had 1.66 road fatalities per 100,000 in 2018. An extremely low rate for the population.
Astoria
Just across the Queensboro bridge, you’ll start passing through Astoria the second best driving city in New York. Same story here with Manhattan, Astoria is another highly urban city that has few residents using cars. Even the cars on the roads have a very small chance of speeding or causing speed induced accidents. Queens county accounted for 3.03 road fatalities per 100,000 people in 2018. Another very low figure for the population density.
Elmhurst
Just east of Astoria is the next best driving city in New York, Elmhurst. Elmhurst shares similar urban environments as NYC and Astoria, which limits the chances of incidents happening. However, what might be the most telling is the driving quality decreases as you head further east. Not too far east of Elmhurst is Central Islip and West Babylon, the worst driver in the state.
Methodology
The QuoteWizard research team evaluated driver quality from the 50 largest cities in New York by population. We analyzed 2018 data of over 212,000 insurance quotes from New York drivers using QuoteWizard to find the rate of overall incidents in each city. Incidents include accidents, speeding tickets, DUIs, and citations.